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By Root 1956 0

its conclusions (“American troops in Vietnam were equipped with a rifle their superiors knew would fail when put to the test.”), the highly illuminating National Defense, p. 77. Most subsequent work on the M16 has tended to follow this line; e.g., Hallahan, Misfire, p. 516, goes so far as to write that the “points of condemnation sound like a historical bill of particulars against all the other eras of Ordnance Department history—including the regimes of Ripley and Benét, and Flagler and Buffington and Crozier—right through the regimes of Studler and Carten.” The “confusion” argument forwarded by McNaugher, M16 Controversies, pp. 135–70, esp. p. 137, decisively routs the opposition.

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86. Though the authors do not remark on these jammings (and a few more), Bungum and Towles’s stories can be found in Moore and Galloway, We Were Soldiers Once, pp. 89, 242, respectively.

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87. E. F. Murphy, The Hill Fights: The First Battle of Khe Sanh (New York: Ballantine Books, 2003), pp. 47, 206.

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88. On these tests, see McNaugher, M16 Controversies, p. 160.

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89. Kahaner, AK-47, p. 50.

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90. Murphy, Hill Fights, p. 129.

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91. E. F. Murphy, Dak To: the 173rd Airborne Brigade in South Vietnam’s Central Highlands, June–November 1967 (Navato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1993), p. 248.

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92. Quoted in Stevens and Ezell, Black Rifle, pp. 274–75.

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93. Originally in P. Shockley, The Trap-door Springfield in the Service, quoted in Stevens and Ezell, Black Rifle, p. 209.

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94. See, for instance, General Godfrey’s comment that “when cartridges were dirty and corroded, the ejectors did not always extract the empty shells from the chambers, and the men were compelled to use knives to get them out.When the shells were clean no great difficulty was experienced.” His authoritative recollection of the battle is reprinted in W. A. Graham, The Custer Myth: A Source Book of Custeriana (New York: Bonanza Books, 1953), esp. pp. 146–47, and also D. D. Scott et al., Archaeological Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989), p. 113.

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95. Quoted in McNaugher, M16 Controversies, p. 140.

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96. Ezell, Lightweight Rifle, pp. 370–71. Alternatively, “official Army inquiries placed the blame for this situation on Colt’s, which, they asserted, shipped the rifle to Vietnam with promotional literature stating that the M16 could not ‘malfunction under any condition, including rain, snow, and mud.’ Colt’s personnel denied this, although literature making precisely these claims was indeed printed for the AR15. Whether such literature was shipped with the weapon to Vietnam, whether it found its way to Vietnam in some other fashion, or whether the Army simply was trying to blame Colt’s for its own omissions is impossible to determine.” McNaugher, M16 Controversies, pp. 169–70n65.

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97. Murphy, Hill Fights, pp. 48, 107.

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98. On bullet “sweating,” see Ezell, Lightweight Rifle, p. 371.

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99. Hallahan, Misfire, p. 511; Ezell, Lightweight Rifle, p. 350.

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100. Quoted in McNaugher, M16 Controversies, p. 121.

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101. B. N. Canfield, “The M14: John Garand’s Final Legacy,” American Rifleman (August 2002), p. 95.

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102. Ezell, Lightweight Rifle, pp. 328–30.

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103. McNaugher, M16 Controversies, p. 127.

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104. “Marines in Viet Will Get Lighter Rifles,” Chicago Tribune, January 2, 1967, p. A2.

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105. There is some confusion over the date of the adoption. Many Web sites state that it was February 28. I have used the date given in Stevens and Ezell, Black Rifle, p. 224.

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Chapter 12

1. Special Report, Attack on the 507th Maintenance Company, 23 March 2003,An Nasiriyah, Iraq, July 2003, pp. 12–14, available online at www.army.mil/features/507thMaintCmpy/.

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2. Quoted in “The USA’s M4 Carbine Controversy,